In college I breathed a mental sigh of relief every time the professors alluded to the phys ed majors' resposibility to teach health--and with that, sex ed. Glad I don't ever have to teach that in English! I thought to myself.
Well, wouldn't you know. God has a sense of humor.
I started teaching about human reproduction today. Okay, I don't have to get into all the nitty gritty details about sex, but as one who blushes at the name of those body parts, it's going to be an interesting three weeks.
Before we get to the science of it, we are starting off with what the Bible says about our bodies. We are created in his image. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. Some parts are designated by special modesty, as are some parts in the body of Christ. We are the body of Christ. And, our speech--about anything, including references to sexuality and others' bodies--should be uplifting and glorifying to God.
With this unit, we [Pam has given me a lot of good advice] hope to give the students a healthy framework to learn this material, so not only are their educational and intellectual needs met, but also their emotional and spiritual needs, too.
Education. Rarely a dull moment.
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The kids were very interested yesterday in whether or not men could have babies.
Yeny announced they couldn't because the don't have three holes.
I decided today that if we can at least identify that the term "penis" goes with the male reproductive system, we'll have success.
We did not achieve success today.
The kids are super interested in how twins come about.
One of the kids wanted to know why people don't have as many kids at one time as dogs or cats do.
Clarified yesterday that when we were saying "three holes," we were NOT saying "frijol" (beans).
That could be a little confusing.
Invited one of the student's moms, who is a doctor, to speak to the kids. I really wanted her to focus primarily on puberty, which she did. But the kids were much more interested in fertilization, pregnancy, and all the potential problems babies could have.
She was a fantastic guest speaker. I'm glad the kids had an opportunity to listen to her and have their questions answered.
Pam spoke to the kids this week about purity and saving yourself for marriage.
She shared a statistic that only 5% of people wait to have sex until after marriage.
One of the students wrote in her response, "I learned that I want to be in that 5%!"
We've moved on, now, to talking about the stages of life more generally. Thus, when we hit the topic of adolescence, we focused primarily on the changes the body will experience. The kids were grossed out by the idea of growing more hair in, well, all the various places it grows.
We also discussed how women's figures change. Mimi wondered aloud why she doesn't have noticeable hips yet. "You haven't hit puberty yet," I pointed out. "Oh, right," she said.
Yeny then proceeded to tell me, "You have a figure, Miss Elizabeth." I think I blushed. Somehow teaching this unit makes me feel a little more self-conscious.
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